How did Target flub this so badly? They offer a coupon online, don't limit its use or distribution and then don't even limit it to the areas of the store it specifies. Seems like they didn't really think it through.

Target no longer is able to accept the couponMINNEAPOLIS, Jul 02, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Unfortunately, due to fraudulent tampering and transferring, Target no longer is accepting coupon offers for $5 off a $25 or more toy or general merchandise purchase at Target. The coupons state they are valid through October 1, 2008.

Target sent the original coupons for $5 off a $25 or more toy purchase via e-mail to approximately 85,000 guests during the months of February and March. The altered coupon had an image and the word toy removed to make it appear to apply to any purchase.

Kathee Tesija, executive vice president, merchandising, Target, said, Our goal is to always surprise and delight our guests with great values, and we are disappointed that some of our guests may be inconvenienced by our need to respond to this fraudulent tampering and transferring.

Guests who originally received the coupon will be notified via e-mail that the coupon no longer is being accepted, and they also will receive a $5 Target GiftCard by mail. In addition, Target stores are posting signs at all check-out lanes alerting guests that these coupons are no longer valid.

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I'm just a humble collector trying to make his way through the universe...of toy aisles."We are strong. We are resilient. We are American." - President Barack Obama, State of the Union Address 2010

So all of us that have a valid coupon that has the word "TOY" on it are just out of luck?

What a crock! They figured out that this thing has circulated around billions of times and are loosing a crap load of money because of their screw up. I am still going to try and use mine to see what they say. Since 90% of cashiers don't pay attention to what they are scanning for coupons it is possible to get it to slip by.

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I have been told to go to hell; well at least I will know everyone there!

So all of us that have a valid coupon that has the word "TOY" on it are just out of luck?

What a crock! They figured out that this thing has circulated around billions of times and are loosing a crap load of money because of their screw up. I am still going to try and use mine to see what they say. Since 90% of cashiers don't pay attention to what they are scanning for coupons it is possible to get it to slip by.

Red the article, if you were one of the people who received the initial e-mail, you will get a $5 coupon in the mail. Signs are supposed to be posted in each checkout lane alerting not only cashiers but consumers of the cancellation of the coupon.

If you used it once, then count yourself lucky as that was supposed to be the intended use.

I'll count myself even more lucky as I'm certain I used them 6-8 times or more. And gave away a good dozen or two to people in the store at the time.

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I'm just a humble collector trying to make his way through the universe...of toy aisles."We are strong. We are resilient. We are American." - President Barack Obama, State of the Union Address 2010

Lame indeed. I just got back from Target before reading this and I tried to hand over the coupon on some Transformers, but sure enough - there were pictures of the coupon up at every register explaining the "fraudulent activity" It never did work for me on a general purchase, but I can understand.

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I am betting it has nothing to do with it being altered for general purchases. I think it was probably used more than 85,000 times and Target recognized that it was an issue. It was sweet while it lasted.

Lame indeed. I just got back from Target before reading this and I tried to hand over the coupon on some Transformers, but sure enough - there were pictures of the coupon up at every register explaining the "fraudulent activity" It never did work for me on a general purchase, but I can understand.

Bummed to see this go, but it was good while it lasted. What I find funny about all this is that they claim coupons were "altered" to take away the message that it needed to be a "Toy Purchase." While I used most of mine on toys, I've not had one cashier refuse them or even question their use on products outside of toys.

I guess the claim that someone tampered with their coupons makes for better publicity than..."Our cashiers didn't take the time to read the coupon or weren't properly instructed on how to use it" or"Whoops! we don't know how to code this type of offer into our registers!"

I think someone in finance just finally caught on that they were getting a heck of a lot of these coupons and wanted an excuse to shut it down. I wonder if they truly lost money on this - while it was running, I was almost exclusively buying everything I could at Target and frequently bought more than I would have to get over the $25 hurdle.

Well, if it was indeed shut down because they were tampered with or folks were using them for non-toy purchases, then those people are a-holes. Sorry if that's some of you here, but I NEVER had a problem using these coupons - but then again, I never tried to use them on a purchase for anything other than toys.

The timing of this change certainly sucks, couldn't it have lasted just one more month? Of course not! Star Wars collectors are coming in droves on July 26th, heaven forbid they let us use a couple of these coupons to offset the price $1 price increase in the figures.

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Peter

Letting my collecting OCD get the better of me on a DAILY basis... and loving EVERY minute of it!

Ultimately it wasn't supposed to be a repeatedly used thing, so everyone who used them more than once used them "fraudulently", technically.

However, I do think it sucks... I'm disappointed, but I also think it was fun while it lasted. Ultimately I wouldn't have shopped much at Target without them though, and actually considered writing to them and letting them know that. Their toy selection is dismal most of the time, and short of exclusives I find nothing but disappointment at their stores generally. Not that WM is much better, I just would avoid both those stores if I didn't have a hobby to keep up with actually.

I wonder though, how much did the card drive actual sales numbers up? I'd love to see that, not that I ever will, just to see if the coupon actually helped them. If I were a betting man, I'd bet it actually bumped them up while it was available and valid. I'd equally like to see if things won't drop off a tad for them afterwards. I know I personally did most of my IJ shopping at Target because of the coupon... Now, why wait? Just go to Wal-Mart and get what you want since they seemingly have had "it" (whatever "it" may be) in more routinely than Target does.

I like Target for their cleanliness, and some other points like open checkout lanes and all, but ultimately I'm disappointed in them for a variety of other reasons I'm not disappointed in WM. They're pretty equally dismal places to shop. I will say I'd rather be ignored by WM's employees than looked down on by Target's. Sad, that that is the choice you are left with.

I actually prefer to shop at Target over WM any day of the week. Outside of the fact that there is a Target every 5 miles in the twin cities and you have to drive to the outskirts to find a WM, Target's are cleaner, they have wider aisles, faster check out, better guest service, AND you can actually check the inventory at most stores. I don't know of any other retailer of any kind where you can actually do that.

All that being said, I still shopped more often and Target while the coupon was running and I rarely left without making a $25 purchase, so I'm sure they saw an increase in volume over this time period. The question is whether the increase is enough to offset lower profits...

I actually prefer to shop at Target over WM any day of the week. Outside of the fact that there is a Target every 5 miles in the twin cities and you have to drive to the outskirts to find a WM, Target's are cleaner, they have wider aisles, faster check out, better guest service, AND you can actually check the inventory at most stores. I don't know of any other retailer of any kind where you can actually do that.

Yeah, I agree with you there. It seems like it must depend on where you live, as far as store experiences go. For us, the wife and I really like to shop at Target - and pretty much buy everything there (if they carry it). The Wal-Mart closest to us is almost always a nightmare (dirty, super busy, etc.), so we avoid it if at all possible. I try to give the majority of the business to Target or TRU, unless there is an exclusive or the price difference is huge. Actually with so many TRU stores shutting down the past few years, I've tried to give our local one the business when possible. I'd like for stores like that to be around for our daughter and future kids - I remember how much fun it was just getting to go in a store like that when I was growing up. Sure, being from a small town that only happened like once a year, so that could have been part of the excitement, but its nice to see some of those simple pleasures around for this generation and beyond. They don't seem to appreciate that stuff the way we did, in some ways. In general, our Target stores here are really nice to shop at. We've never had trouble with check out waits (even on Black Fridays), the stores are always clean and well organized, and there's plenty of room to get around. Comparatively, we always seem to leave Wal-Mart angry, because the whole process is frustrating. Again, it might just be a regional thing. Plus, our store has taken away the self checkers (maybe that is nationwide), one of the nice things they actually had there.

Anyways, back on topic, that does sort of stink about the coupon. I think we used one two or three times. I hadn't actually found much SW stuff since the coupon was available, but used it on some Indy stuff - and we used it when shopping for our nephew and daughter's birthdays the past couple of months. Its too bad that some people had to abuse it, and now that option isn't there.

Bummer about the whole thing, but I had no idea that the coupon was handed out to only 85,000 people and intended for one use. I've actually bought more than $50 worth of toys a couple of times and asked if I could do more than one transaction to use two coupons and never got shot down.

Target was kind of lazy to their detriment about the whole thing though. They could have easily keyed the coupon to work with DCPI 087 (toy) purchases only and should have not refunded customer the value of the coupon back upon returns. Not hard to do technically.

The coupon really did not suggest it was a one time use coupon. It was a one coupon per transaction. I used the coupon often, but always only for toys and always for purchases more than $25. If I wound up returning something, they never deducted the coupon, but that is their computer issue, not my use of the coupon.

I am grateful the coupn worked and I am sure Target benefitted a great deal. I have not bought a toy elsewhere for four months, exclusives excepted.

Bummed to see this go, but it was good while it lasted. What I find funny about all this is that they claim coupons were "altered" to take away the message that it needed to be a "Toy Purchase."

I guess the claim that someone tampered with their coupons makes for better publicity than...

Ya know what's weird? I found out that half my entire department were using the "fraudulent" coupons after this story made the rounds yesterday. I had no freakin clue it was being abused past the toy collecting community.

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